Johnny Thunder rides the highway

Superhero: Modulo the Modular Man
First Appearance: Modulo the Modular Man issue number 6, cover date March 1968 (sales date November 1967).
Final Appearance: Modulo the Modular Man issue number 4, cover date July 1975 (sales date March 1975).

This comic attempted to catch the excitement of the early space race by having its hero, Walter Canton, be an astronaut who gained the superpower of his hands popping off at will (his) as the result of an encounter with space witches. As Modulo the Modular Man he served as a competent entrant in the list of slapping-based superheroes. The attempt to draw young readers' interest by each issue featuring faithfully rendered depictions of Project Mercury control rooms, testing laboratories, and space capsules was undercut by publisher Canton Instant Classics' bad luck in timing, as the first issues of the series hit the shelves almost exactly four years after the final Project Mercury flight.

---

The remainder of this is, as traditional now, over in my humor blog. Other links of the week are:

• Some Parts Of The Horse, a useful list.
• Some Parts Of The Horse Or The Carburetor, obviously, an even more useful list.
• What the hay? about a minor mystery including the pet rabbit.
• I Guess I Need Some Colorful Help, with a bit of extra work.
• What I Notice In Every Old Picture Of Me, a sad bit of truth.
• Over on the Other Blog: Comic Strips! just to advise readers that the math blog has some comic strip stuff going on.

Trivia: At a February 1972 meeting of the Science Steering Group to evaluate cost savings for the Viking mission, orbiter scientist Conway W Snyder noted that the project could save $3.15 million by using augmented Project Mariner TV cameras, or $3.30 million by using Mariner TV cameras, or $17.80 million by deleting cameras altogether from the orbiter. Source: On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet 1958 - 1978, Edard Clinton Ezell, Linda Neuman Ezell. NASA SP-4212.

Currently Reading: Your Movie Sucks, Roger Ebert.